The Nightmare Curtain
by Waxmetal
Summary: Jess is forced to fight for his life, fight for his rights and fight for his people against the nightmare master Freddy Krueger who wishes to enslave the Terabithians in hopes of killing every child on Earth with their help.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1: There is trouble brewing.

Jess opened his eyes. He was leaning against a steel so cold his skin stuck against it, and forcing himself to stand up, he ripped away the flesh from around his elbows. Warm blood trickled out, tears came to his eyes.

"WHERE AM I?!" he shouted, and although the room was so large he couldn't see the ends of it, there was no familiar echo. No empty reminder of his own self. He began to walk, and with each step the pull of his skin against the floor ripped more and more. Soon he was leaving tracks of bloody footprints in his wake.

The room was dark. He could barely see ahead of him, and nothing was in his midst but the shadow hidden walls and perhaps a ceiling. He called out again.

"CAN ANYBODY HEAR ME? OH GOD!" He grabbed his hair, clinging to it, and breathed heavily through gritted teeth. His eyebrows furrowed into a look of pain. He couldn't stop walking or his feet would stick even worse. It felt like he had been walking for hours.

Suddenly the floor shifted and the steel was pulled forward, knocking him over. He smashed his head off the floor.

"SHIT!" The steel melted while retaining its cool until 4 long knives appeared forged from the ground. A laughter resounded around him, and Jess realized he would much rather be alone than with whatever mad man was howling with such evil ferocity. The blades suddenly flew towards him, the ground pulling under. They landed between him and as he looked back, he realized they were attached to a hand.

"Oh my GOOOD!" he shouted. "OH MY GOD SOMEBODY HELLLPP ME!" The darkness grew thicker until he could no longer see the glove, only feel it as the floor pulled around him. He ran, bloody footprints everywhere. He began to slip on his own blood. He smashed face first into the ground, and this time an echo blasted from every direction, his own pain broadcasted to him a million times from every direction. Tears streamed down his face faster and faster.

A ball of light from above appeared and began to draw downwards like a globe of hope. Jess stared at it for a moment before realizing that too was nothing but an object of terror. It merged with the glove, turning cold steel hot, and the red metal against his feet began to burn at his exposed nerve endings. Jess shouted again, coughing and vomiting in front of him. He stepped in the vomit for a moments release from the heat.

Leaving tracks of blood and vomit behind him, he ran every which way as he hoped to avoid the steel claws. He could feel their grip against the floor growing stronger and finally it stopped and began to push downwards. Jess slipped and hit the floor again, cracking his skull. He began to slide downwards as the ground pushed itself lower and lower, and he clawed at the red steel, his fingers sizzling as with every other part of him. His shirt lit on fire, and he threw it off of him, the smoke entering his throat and sending him into a coughing fit.

He stopped sliding and jumped to his feet running in circles to keep off the ground. Coming towards him was a man in a dirty red and green sweater. His brown fedora shadowed his face, and he stood motionless, chuckling quietly and malevolently. Jess was screaming at him to stop doing what he was doing. The man looked up. His burned skin became apparent to Jess. A disgusting grease added shine to his shriveled horror.

"You're a bitch, Jess. Only bitches cry." He raised his arms and flames spurted from the ground, engulfing everything in sight. Jess screamed and breathed in and the flames entered his body, burning him from the inside and out.

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Jess woke up in a violent state of terror, clawing at his sheets, bed and body. His dad ran in the room.

"Jess, JESS! What's wrong?" Jess refused to calm down, falling onto the floor before finally seating himself properly on the hard wood and squabbling nonsense.

"Jess, it was only a dream son. It was just a dream. Hush now boy, dreams can't hurt you." Jess grabbed onto his dad, hugging him tightly, clawing into his back for protection.

"Dad, I... Dad I'm sorry."

"Hush son, ain't nothin' to apologize for. Come on, get dressed and come downstairs." Jess noticed he had woken up his little sister. She sat on the bed across from him looking worried.

"Jess, you gonna be alright?"

"Yeah Maybelle... Everything's okay."

Jess looked out the window. It was a cloudy day, and he had school. He was too burnt out to practice running, so he went to finish up his chores before breakfast. Meandering work to keep his mind off the pain of his nightmare. It hadn't been like other nightmares, and boy had he had his share. It was different. It felt more real. It felt like death was coming even after he had woken up. A voice in his head told him he was wrong, but he couldn't shake it. He had to get his mind off it. There was no if and or but about it, it had just been a dream, but it felt scarring. It felt as if everything good about his life had been sucked out and replaced with terror. Thinking about it brought him closer to death. He had heard that stress shortens your life span, so he wondered how a farm boy could ever live past a week. Every day could mean failure if the weather wanted it to. Every day was a struggle to pay the bills and the mortgage. Jess didn't have to deal with that he was too young, but that made it even worse. He felt like he couldn't even help no matter what. Jess promised himself he wouldn't die until he was a day over 100. Life hadn't been good enough to him yet, but he figured by then something good had to happen. It was just one of those things.

"Breakfast is served," his mother touted in her upwards tone. Jess stared down at a full plate of eggs and bacon. He had never been fond of bacon, but he loved eggs and ate them with a hungry fervor.

"Jess, your dad says you had some trouble waking up this morning. What was that about?"

"I had a nightmare is all mom," Jess lied. It hadn't been just a nightmare. It had been a brush with death himself, he thought.

"Well just keep an eye on the happy things in life. Nightmares only come if you concentrate on the negative." Jess didn't feel like he'd been thinking about anything bad, and certainly nothing to that level, but he silently agreed to avoid the possibility of an argument.

His older sisters eyed him with no concern. They were selfish and were part of the reason the family had so little money. They always wanted something, and it was never to help. They weren't ugly, but he saw them that way. He only saw what a person looked like through their personality. His little sisters were too young to understand what was going on. Maybelle had an idea, and he thought she'd be beautiful some day, but his baby sister didn't really think about much beyond sleeping and eating. He hadn't grown very attached to her yet, but he also had no idea what kind of person she was ever gonna be.

Honk honk. The bus pulled up outside, engine falling into an idle. Jess grabbed his backpack and launched himself out the door in his crappy sneakers and ajean jacket his grandpa had given him for Christmas that year. His shaggy hair fell into his eyes and he looked down at his feet as he stepped on the bus trying to avoid the glare of the bus driver.

"Getting closer, Ace. One of these days you'll be here before I am."

Jess plunked down next to his new friend Janice. She had been popular before he ruined it, and she never knew the truth behind that. He figured some day he'd tell her he was the one who planted a note in her desk to make her think a guy he'd never even met liked her. They were grades apart, and Jess knew the next year he wouldn't have her any more when she moved on to high school, so he made the best of it. It kind of made him sad even if he barely knew her.

He felt his sketchbook, full of precious drawings. Thumbing it, he wondered if maybe it was the right time for Janice to see it. He had always been real private about it, didn't want anyone to look into his world and see what made him tick. His best friend Leslie was the only one he was comfortable with looking at it. She had died over a month ago. Jess hadn't coped well, and he still wasn't, but focusing on the negative was never a good thing. Focusing on Leslie's death. Focusing on losing Janice at the end of the year. Focusing on his nightmare.

The bus pulled up in front of the school, and as the students pooled out, Jess decided to focus on the day ahead of him. It wouldn't be fun, but at least it wouldn't be depressing. Things don't always go right, but he'd be a hundred years old some day.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2: Deceit of doom.

Sitting in class proved a boring exercise every day. He went from home where he was bored straight to a boring day of classes and then more boredom at home. The ticking of the clock kept him in tune with his surroundings. Tick, tick, tick, tick. He tried to measure an entire minute by means of counting every tick, but he always seemed to be off by one or two. Jess rapped his fingers against the desk. It was Ms. Myers math class. He wondered if he could possibly soak up how to do the work if he kept ignoring it in favor of a standard issue, school board designed, as boring as possible wall clock. The answer was no.

Jess looked up for a moment only to notice Ms. Myers was gone. It was a difficult concept to come to terms with, but Jess figured she was in the bathroom, and he began to wince at the thought. His other teacher, the one he enjoyed, Ms. Edmunds walked in. She had the most beautiful eyes Jess had ever seen. She brought about a sense of misery to Jess; she reminded him of Leslie, but then again, so did everything else. Life goes on.

Ms. Edmunds carried in her cart of instruments as usual, only a sheet was over top. She smiled and the class smiled back, and she silently took a piece of chalk and began to write on the board while moving in the most magnificent ways, as if she was some kind of English language ballerina. The words spelled out on the board put horror into Jess.

"M-M-Ms. Edmunds..." Jess half heartedly called out, "What do you mean?" A sentence sprawled out on the board broke Jess's heart. He couldn't bear to read it again.

"You don't know what it means, Jess? Awww, well let me spell it out: It means you're a faggot!" A whisper came from behind him.

"Faggot... Retard." It was Scott Hoager, but that didn't come as a surprise beyond the filth spewing forth from him.

He looked back up at Ms. Edmunds. She was screaming in pain, tears flowing from her tearing eyelids as she violently seizured. Her body began to tear at the seems until finally four knives tore apart her head and she collapsed like a cloak around the steaming and ugly body of a burned mad man. He stood and laughed. Jess quivered and leapt from his desk, it screeched across the floor. The man reached under the desk and pulled out a brown fedora and adorned it on his skull. He spoke once again in his gravelly misshapen tone.

"The name's Freddy, and you've got something I want."

Jess stared wide eyed at the man, backed into the corner of the room. The other kids finally fell away from his spell, and they all began to scream and huddle around the locked door. The ceiling started to get lower and lower around them. Freddy out stretched his arms and began to walk slowly around the room.

"All this is your fault Jess. Now who should I kill?" He looked each student in the eye. Every one with the fear of a Godless man in their heart. A young girl with her lips tightened into an enormous frown, shaking, crying and almost fallen over clasped onto her friends shirt as she wet herself. Freddy grabbed her and felt her smooth chest.

"This brings me back to my old days." Freddy licked his lips and held her tight against him, stroking her hair with his finger knives. Blood trickled down from her skull and blood matted hair stuck to her shoulders. The red liquid fell into her eyes, forcing them shut. Jess couldn't make a move. He was too afraid. Too filled with fear. Freddy slammed his hand up into the ceiling, crumbling tile falling down, Jess reached forward to try and help, but Freddy tore his gloved hand, covered in 4 steel knives, from the ceiling into the top of her skull. Blood flew out of every orifice on her head and Freddy smiled brightly. Jess stood shocked and fell over, his teeth clenching.

"My names Krueger, Jess. Don't forget that."

Jess awoke to screams around him, not knowing what was going on. His heart was beating faster than it had in a long time and he tripped over his own desk as he shot upwards. Everyone was surrounding the girl in his dreams who had been cut apart. She had simply fallen over and blood had started to run from her ears. Ms. Myers had called 911 and was crying as she held onto the girl, warning the other students.

"Stay back! STAY BACK!" Jess didn't know what to do, what to say. He just stood there with his mouth agape.

Class let out early that day. The bus driver came and Jess filed on with the rest of the students and went straight to his regular seat. The skinny man behind the wheel, his long neck and big ears, he had his eyes covered by sunglasses. Couldn't think about what had happened and what was happening. Janice sat next to him, plopping down so hard Jess was knocked into her by the force.

"Ow, watch it Jess," she said. Jess didn't respond. He just stared out the window at where he had seen the ambulance minutes before. The girl had been Lacy Chambers. She left completely hidden by a white and stained red sheet. Jess felt responsible. He was the only one who knew what happened. He couldn't risk telling anyone what he had seen though, or they'd think he was crazy.

Janice looked at him. He could sense she wanted to ask him a question.

"What is it?" Jess asked, his head resting against the seat in front of him.

"What was it like? You know, seeing a dead body?" Jess bit his lower lip. He figured that's what she wanted to ask, and it wasn't a terribly insensitive question, but it hit Jess hard.

"It was like watching another friend die, Janice. I didn't see Leslie die, but I saw it in my head. And I wasn't friends with this girl, but I watched her die. It feels unfair. It feels wrong. It feels like I should've seen Leslie go, not Lacy. It was like I was watching a private moment. Nobody wants to see their friends die, but I have a feeling they don't want random people watching their friends die even more. And above that, I don't think they want their friends to die. So that's what it's like, Janice. It's like watching something you were never s'posed to see. Kids ain't meant to die, Janice..." Jess didn't cry. He wanted to, but it wasn't in his nature to cry, and if he waited so long to cry over Leslie, it would be doing her a dishonor to cry now for a girl he hardly even knew.

The bus arrived at Jess's house. He hopped off, his sister followed. He looked over at the house where Leslie used to live, tore his eyes away from it, and went into his own abode. His mom waited at the door.

"Maybelle, Jess, we were notified. Your dad's gonna try and get off work early tonight. Is there anything you guys need to talk about?" Jess wasn't sure what to say, so he said he'd just go play outside. Maybelle stayed out in the kitchen to help her mom cook dinner.

Jess ran as fast as he could to the bridge he had made. It took him to a magical place full of wonderful people and creatures, and he was the King over all of them. Today he just felt like being alone though. He crossed the bridge, his eyes shut and his backpack slung over his shoulder.

He arrived at the tree house. It was reinforced with the love of friendship. He could do anything he wanted in Terabithia, but all Jess wanted to do was sit and draw. He usually drew happy things, but today he drew a picture of Lacy. He had never really known her, but he felt he should at least be a part of continuing her memory. Silently for sure, but still, it was important to him. He couldn't stop himself, the blood practically drew itself. Freddy lurched behind her, and her cracked skull was quickly drawn. Fred smiled to Jess. He looked menacing, evil, and Jess felt at that moment that he had finally met somebody who truly had no good in them. None at all.

He held in his tears again, and climbing out of the tree, slipped and fell, breaking his ankle. Pain splurged through his body and he ended up winded, lying on the ground clawing at sticks and dirt. He remembered when he was just 6 years old. He had climbed on top of his fathers truck, and was playing on top. His dad had yelled at him to get down, startling him and knocking him to the ground. He had sprained the same ankle, and his father had picked him up and drove him right to the hospital. He had the love and help of his father that time, but this time he was all on his own. He trembled and tried to push himself towards his house, gasping for breath. It was too much. He collapsed.

Jess woke up, darkness having fallen. The woods were shadowy and black, his vision obscured of everything even mere feet away from him. He felt a presence surround him. It was the Fern People, gathered to help him. Their faces covered by elegant and elaborate masks of red and yellow, carved in oak. Their hair sprawled out wildly and they wore loose clothing knitted into fantastic yet careful designs. They were scrawny people with stick arms and legs, exposed rib cages and visible veins everywhere. Small plants grew out of them. Jess had met them a week prior and had befriended them then.

They reached down to grab him and pull him up, and he quickly accepted their aid. Another presence made itself evident. The air around Jess and the Fern People became so hot they choked on it.

"What's a matter you little bitch? Can't handle the pain?" Freddy walked out, the smell of burned flesh clogged Jess's nostrils and he began to cough violently. "Aw, you can't stand, can you?" Freddy tapped his finger knife against his face as if to figure out what could be the most sadistic action taken. Jess, in his moment of pain and helplessness somehow found the courage to finally speak to Freddy.

"WHAT DO YOU WANT?" Jess screamed, the Fern People taken aback, already frightened out of their minds by the likes of Fred Krueger. A glint in Freddy's eye, he spoke again.

"Isn't it obvious? I want all this. You call yourself a king? You can't even stand a broken foot. I thought you kings were supposed to lead your troops through thick, thin and worse. I just happen to think I'd make a better king. Tyranny is an excellent method, Jess. You have quite the imagination, envisioning this shit. Too bad you can't handle it."

Freddy leapt forward violently, aiming for Jess's chest. One of the Fern People jumped to sacrifice himself. A sick smelling mixture of blood and sap spurted forth from the wound as Jess rolled backwards and tried to climb out of the way. The trees folded around him, taking him prisoner. Freddy picked up another of the Fern People.

"You're a bean pole people, you Fern Faggots, aren't you?" Freddy shook him hard and brought him face to face with his malevolent self. "I'll crack you in half." Freddy brought him down over his knee, and again a thick splurt of liquid spewed forth into the air, coating Freddy, the Fern People, and Jess. They all rallied around the monster to fight him, each one being slaughtered faster than the last. Freddy picked one up and held another under his foot. He raised his knives to the skin of the Fern Person and began to slice off layer after layer of skin as if peeling an apple.

"Fern Faggots don't interest me much, Jess. They'll make good servants in my castle, but that's about it." He threw the skinned creature to the ground. It wasn't dead yet. It gasped for air, and choked out the blood pooling in his lungs. He drowned in his own fluids, and a small trickle continued to pour even after all the life emptied from his eyes.

Jess rattled on the trees, his teeth in a grit. He became increasingly desperate as his fate felt closer and closer. Freddy peered downwards and pulled off his hat, tossing it onto the broken stuck up arm of a tortured creature.

"Nice Jess, but where's the fighters? I'm gonna need better than that for what I'm doin'. You're not the first Jess, and you won't be the last. I've conquered a thousand imaginations, don't fancy yourself special, FAGGOT." He clawed in half the trees holding Jess prisoner and let himself in. Jess jumped forward and tackled Freddy with his good foot, then quickly took off and back to the tree house, Freddy in quick pursuit.

"You can't run from me Jess, I'm the boogeyman." Jess looked behind him, Freddy walking at a slow pace towards him.

"That doesn't even make sense you burn ward freak," Jess managed to shakingly state. He jumped on one foot into the tree house landing on his side with an oof. Crawling again, he worked his way over to a wooden container and smashed it open. The Swan Sword. Jess took a stand, limping, only to find Freddy standing right in front of him. He took a stab and tore through Freddy's melted skin and sweater, pulled it around and tore it up through Freddy's shoulder.

"Shit Jess, you've got a strong arm, BUT A WEAK LEG!" He clawed into Jess's already broken foot, and Jess suddenly woke up.

His mom and a police officer stood in front of him. His mom had a worried look of happiness on her face, the same one he'd seen the day Leslie died. When he had come home only to hear that Leslie had died. When his mom looked him in the eye and didn't have the courage to tell him that Leslie died.

"Thank God you're okay." She picked him up and hugged him. The police man looked down with his flashlight.

"Hold on, he's bleeding." The officer called over another man, and they carried him back out to the house.

It was the dead of night, and he was laid on the couch while his dad frantically called 911. It wasn't that serious of a wound, Jess thought, even though the pain seized all through his leg and tore up into his body like a burning fire. If he was in this condition, there was no way he could fight Freddy, and he knew it. A tear excised itself from the twisted corner of his eye.

Finally an ambulance pulled up and Jess was lifted in. It was a long ride to the hospital. He was asked all sorts of questions about what had happened. Nobody thought the incident particularly serious, although he was bleeding fairly badly. His wounds were treated quickly with bandages and butterfly clips, and within a couple of hours of x-rays he was told there was no internal damage and he would be up and running in a matter of weeks. Nobody could understand why Jess was so upset about it. They knew he would be disappointed, but he acted as if it were the end of the world. And even though he knew it was, and could be for every child on the planet, he couldn't tell anyone. There was no way they would believe him.

Suddenly, he remembered that Terabithia had another ruler, May Belle.

"Oh God," Jess shouted, "Go find my sister!"


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3: This means war.

Jess tried to pull himself out of his bed, but his leg was strapped into a suspended cast and he couldn't make it off the bed without clunking his skull into the floor, this he knew. His father held him down anyways, and urged him to quiet down. His sister May Belle was asleep in the other room with their mother. They had decided to keep Jess company for at least the night. It was only 4 hours from dawn anyways. Jess's mother also asleep, resting her head against the back of the uncomfortable pink hospital chair, May Belles head in her lap.

---

Freddy sat in a field of ashes, lounging in a throne a hundred feet tall made from the twisted and wracked bodies of molested and murdered children screaming to be let loose from their eternal torture, into Heaven or Hell, whichever would accept them. It had to be better than what they had now. The swirling storm of dust surrounded Freddy and beat on the broken bodies of children hanged by their own intestines over tall willow trees that raped every pocket of their body. The storm infiltrated and cut their wounded corpses that weren't allowed to die, each wasp of burning ash hurting them all the worse as their eyes were flecked apart by the grey winds.

Fred closed his eyes and smiled, thinking to himself as the sounds of torture fueled his infinitely benevolent imagination. What could he do to Jess that would make the end of his life miserable? The storm stopped and an endlessly high building became visible in the distance, racked with cages of billions and billions of people. Each were weak. It would take hundreds and thousands of them to kill one child. They had virtually no presence in a child's mind. Freddy had to keep collecting before he could possibly hope to overcome the worlds children. Suffering would abound as armies of MILLIONS of creatures infiltrated every corner of every child's dreams. He smiled again, his burned lips melted together at the corners, his dimples overshadowed by missing blotches of skin, exposed muscle twitching underneath. His eyes glinted. They weren't dead eyes like that of a sociopath. They weren't empty of emotion, and neither was he. Freddy, the bastard son of a hundred maniacs, didn't kill because of a lack of caring. He killed because killing brought him pleasure in the sickest sense possible. He wasn't senseless, he was evil incarnate, a true sadist and molester whose only wish was to bring pain to everyone in a sort of violent undeserved revenge.

Jess was claustrophobic. Fred knew his worst fears. He was claustrophobic, and he was afraid of ever hurting others, although that was a recently gained fear that pooled from the thought that Janice might ever find out about the letter he sent. Jess wasn't afraid of much, he'd never been given anything to be afraid of. He was afraid of finding himself alone. Alone in a small space forever. And a third time he smiled, as the littlest ruler of Terabithia fell into dream world. It was his time to shine.

---

Jess continued to call out for his sister, but his dad said nothing of it. He was given a sleeping pill to help him fall under, and he quickly lost consciousness mumbling something about being murdered that the doctors took as babbling. The yellow hospital room faded and became his castle in Terabithia. The interior was purple with a shiny black and white checkered floor, a resounding lighting that just barely lit the walls but kept the floor constantly lit gave the room an ethereal beauty that was found nowhere else in Terabithia. The walls were lined with plants that bloomed in awesome colors and grew wildly for meters and meters down towards the floor. He sat in his throne, golden with a magenta pattern on the cushions. It sat 7 feet high, and was raised on a platform with a deep blue carpet that led to the doorway, which stood taller than any man, woman or otherwise in the kingdom. His sisters throne sat next to his, and the light over top of it flickered. Jess stood up from his seat in the lonely room and went over to his sisters. The thick smell of blood entered his nostrils. Jess became alarmed and noticed a small trail of blood leading outside the castle.

He burst through the doors which opened a deafening boom, and he barely made it through before they bounced back and shut again. May Belles screams could be heard from outside the castle. She was under the draw bridge in the moat, which had been emptied. He could see nails and broken glass lining the sands on the ground, and he slowly worked his way down the moat. Freddy stood in the shadow, holding her up above him. Her face was covered in cuts and slices. Jess suddenly realized he was moving freely, his ankle didn't hurt.

"This is a dream," Jess shouted, "I can do whatever I want!" He jumped at Freddy, kicking him in the chest and twirling back around to land safely. His sister fell into a nail, piercing her hand.

"Jess, Jess, help me! The scary man wants to kill me!"

"Hold on May Belle, I gotcha!"

Jess tackled Freddy again to the ground, but he disappeared in a puff of smoke.

"Can't get me that easily, you little shit." Freddy's voice could be heard from all directions. Jess shook his head all over attempting to find where he could be hiding, but he was nowhere. Jess gathered his thoughts and ran over to May Belle who was injured. Suddenly she disappeared as well. Jess was left to wander around in the dark. He realized what was happening. He would be killed by Freddy, his people would be enslaved by Freddy, and the rest of the world would die by Freddy's hand. For such a perfect sadist, Jess had no idea why he didn't want to achieve every kill himself.

Jess went to rally his troops while he was still under, and while Freddy was still away. There was no way he was going down without a fight. The best soldiers from every species would fight, and the rest would stay behind to help. No man, woman or child would get out of fighting this war, and Jess knew that without it the world would soon become a very empty place free of any resolve for good. His people would never stand for that. They would die for any good cause, and this was the best cause anyone would think of. They would save the world, and they would do it with pride.

The most human race of all, the Minutes would fight in the front with Jess himself. They were a hungry and violent people who craved blood but would not seek it unless for a just cause. This made their blood cries even stronger as their need for it grew stronger every day they were without it. They resembled humans in almost every detail, but their hour glass cores were stuffed with visible organs.

The four legged Squires would work just behind the Minutes. They were like monsters that ravaged all that they saw that did not have the scent of a Terabithian. They were violent creatures that would surely make a mess of things, but there was nothing that could stop that.

The Skroagers and the Harry Vultures would make excellent mindless creatures to clear every battlefield and pick apart the bones of dead soldiers from either side. Jess knew this, their violent personalities were still ground into them from the now dead Dark Master.

There was the gigantic Troll, a one of a kind creature who felt loneliness and despair. Extinction would come for it, having no possible mate. It moped and felt sad for itself, but would make an excellent Berserk soldier in a war.

The Fern People, so delicate and peaceful would serve good to cook meals, which was their specialty. Their meals would serve as hearty dishes for war torn soldiers who needed an escape from what was coming in the war against a mad man and against a million slaves.

There were many more races, but they each filled into these basic categories. Jess's eyes were filled with a burning desire to inflict pain, for the first time in his entire life. A representative from each race stood in front of him as he gave orders and positions. The battle would start the next day whether Jess was alive or not.

"Men, this is not the time to worry about what'll happen if you die. Your children will miss you, but fear for what will happen to them if you don't die rather than if you do. Freddy threatens me with death, but he wants every one of you as his own personal slave. He wants to control the thousands of you to help kill every living child on Earth. I am your King, I will fight beside you. I will die if I have to, but you'd better fight on without me. Do you hear me, men?" A cry erupted from each being, their adrenaline built up within their bodies. They raised their fists to the air with violent fervor, and their eyes burned as bright as Jess's with love for their kingdom and for their families. There would be no slavery. They would die before that.

Jess awoke startled, his father was gone. In his place, his two older sisters sat and bickered over which one should stay while the other left to do God knows what. Jess made his presence clear.

"Hi," he groaned, "Thanks for being so damned caring." He had never before had the courage to stay something so startlingly rude before in front of somebody from his family, especially not his older sisters who would think nothing of ratting him out to their mother. They looked surprised, but ultimately concluded it was his bed ridden state that had made him a jerk, and decided to leave it alone this time. His oldest sister piped up.

"May Belle's in another ward, Jess. You're not the only one to get hurt last night."

"WHAT? What happened?" Jess could feel his eyes popping out of his skull, even though the tone his sister had taken was less than worried.

"She cut herself up in her sleep. Doctors don't know how the heck she managed, but she managed."

Jess couldn't very well move from where he was, so he instead waited for his little sister to come back to him. She'd be up and running before he would. He lied back and stared at the hospital ceiling, yellow, made up of a million asbestos tiles. Jess wondered as to how he knew so much about asbestos. He knew that it was safe for humans to be around, despite what other people said. It was the asbestos mines and mining towns that were riddled with cancer linked to the substance, not ceiling tiles and flame retardant blankets. Then he remembered where he knew it all from. It brought a smile to him, and let him forget about the suffering around him for a moment.

He had been at the fire station with his class in second grade. The fire station was terribly interesting to him then, in between the fire engines and the fireman pole, and the smoke alarms they set off that made all the girls cover their ears. They had made a comment about asbestos, and Jess, being the smart second grader he was, inquired about how it's been linked to cancer. That's where he learned it from. That's how it happened.

By the time he had finished thinking, both of his older sisters had left the room and he had been abandoned by all living relatives. Although he knew his parents and baby sister would be with May Belle, Jess strongly suspected his older sisters had probably gone home, or into town for window shopping while they were still in the city. Their wardrobes were constantly expanding, and the families wallet had all but shrunk into nothingness because of it. Jess was filled with anger at the thought of their greed. Why couldn't God have taken them instead? What a horrible thing to think, he thought again. Though, he knew, Leslie would've been by his side, stayed by his side, and rested by his side when she was too tired to keep her eyes open any more. No, Leslie was gone, and it was because Jess hadn't stayed beside her. He had accepted that her death wasn't his fault, but he still felt terrible for abandoning her. He would always feel terrible. Parents were supposed to give their kids pets to teach them about companionship, responsibility and ultimately, death. Instead he learned these things through an eleven year old girl. He learned friendship for the first time in his life, he learned responsibility through that friendship, and how sometimes friends should come first. And through that same lesson of responsibility, he learned about death. He would never forget her, even though he hadn't known her long. He noticed his hand was gripped into a tight fist. He let go, and shut his eyes.

The man in the bed next to him was invisible save his shadow through the curtain. Jess could hear a monitor attached to his heart. Beep, beep, beep. It was bothering him to an excessive and unreasonable point. He hadn't seen the man earlier, he must've been moved in while Jess was asleep. Then Jess came to wonder why he wasn't in the children's ward. He looked over at the shadow. The man sat up, his heart rate monitor speeding up. Faster, and faster, as he reached over to the intravenous drip and pulled a fedora from off the top of it. The man out stretched his long hand, and Jess could smell blood and brim stone, melting flesh. Suddenly the man tore his hand through the curtain.

"I love the hospital," whispered the familiar gravel voice, "It's always full of laughs." Jess jumped from his bed and ran towards the door, his foot still in a cast. Kicking the door it shattered, leaving a mess of plaster on the floor. Jess ran through the empty semi-lit hallways of the hospital, the checkered black and white tiles helping him keep track of the floor as he ran at full speed towards the door leading outside. Grabbing onto it, the handle was red hot and burned his hand. Jess let out a scream and stared down at the black mark branded into his hand.

Jess's heart stopped. This wasn't the outside of the hospital at all. A burning red boiler room was laid out in front of him. He could see Freddy coming up the hall behind him, and didn't want to take the chance of heading back. He could hardly see, the heat coming up in front of his eyes in smooth waves. He tried to push it away with his hand, but no luck. He heard the door open behind him, Freddy coming. He had nowhere to go. He couldn't climb; it was too hot. Jess maneuvered quietly across the metal floor, hiding behind the boilers burning hot. Jess knew this was what hell felt like, and Freddy could only stand to enjoy it.

Freddy inched towards Jess, licking his blades with such a violent fervor that he lopped off his own tongue. It fell to the floor with a plunk, and Jess yelled. The world around him began to change as he willed the evil away, and the boiler room began to wilt away around him, trees and grass and mountains emerging from the hot steel as it fell into the ground. Freddy's eyes grew wide.

"Fucking punk, you can't do that." Glowing steel butterflies began to swoop in around them, welding to one another and becoming the boiler catastrophe once again. Jess began to will them apart once again, and for the first time in his after life, Freddy was forced into a battle of wills over control of the dream world.

Freddy gave up. What was the importance of surroundings so long as he had his glove?

He moved towards Jess again, glove extended into the air with a wicked smile on his face as he half assed his usual laughter. Jess ran back into the woods towards his castle which stood visible from every part of the kingdom. It began to fall apart around him again, and become hospital room. He jolted awake, his heart rate monitor off the charts.

He had been scared before. Afraid of Freddy. But now he truly and honestly feared the coming day.


End file.
